Editorial: Limit gaming to Seminole Tribe for exchange of revenue

State lawmakers who think it’s a good idea to expand gambling options in Florida should not be blinded by healthy revenue projections for the Seminole Tribe casinos in Tampa and other parts of the state.

In fact, they would be better served to gaze upon the grim scene taking place in New Jersey, where an estimated 8,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs as three major casinos in Atlantic City close their doors.

It’s another blow to a city that greedily banked its future on the lure of high-stakes gambling and is now paying the price as casinos spread to neighboring states and saturate the market. Eight casinos will remain in Atlantic City, for now, but a lack of other industries and a dearth of non-gambling jobs means there is little hope for the newly unemployed to find work in the city they call home.

If anything, the Seminole revenue projections should give Gov. Rick Scott more of an incentive to forge a new agreement with the tribe over revenue sharing in return for exclusivity for high-stakes gaming. The agreement confines the gaming to Seminole lands and precludes a saturation that would be bad for business and bad for the state’s reputation. The state had little choice but to allow the high-stakes gaming on Seminole lands four years ago because the federal government would in all likelihood have allowed the games on the tribal lands. The deal for the high-stakes card games, which expires next year, appears to be benefiting both parties.